Posted on 05/24/2006 10:13:08 AM PDT by IrishMike
WASHINGTON — The first wave of about 800 National Guard soldiers will head to the U.S-Mexico border next week, including planners and leadership personnel who will stay longer than the planned 21-day missions, the National Guard chief told lawmakers Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum said 200 soldiers are preparing to go to each of the four border states _ California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico _ around June 1. He said the initial troops will be part of a longer-term force of project managers who will stay on the job over time to provide continuity in the new border program.
The troops represent the launch of President Bush's plan to dispatch up to 6,000 National Guard members to states bordering Mexico to support the Border Patrol and help stem the flow of illegal immigrants across the border.
It was not clear whether the initial influx of Guard members would come from the four border states or from other units across the country. Blum said the Guard troop that will be deployed longer than three weeks are volunteers.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
And they said the two-year plan _ which calls for using up to 6,000 troops at a time in the first year, and no more than 3,000 in the second year _ will not overtax the guard or impair troops' ability to train or prepare for combat.
Some committee members echoed complaints from critics who have suggested that the border plan would overburden a National Guard that is already stretched by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. But Blum said the border program, coupled with the approximately 71,000 Guard members deployed overseas, still leaves more than 350,000 Army and Air Guard available for other homeland defense or disaster assistance.
David Aguilar, chief of the border patrol, also told lawmakers that the plan will be augmented with additional, strategically located fencing, as well as an increased of about 6,000 border patrol guards by some time in 2008.
Okay, now what's gonna happen when the first American Guard personnel is shot? You KNOW it's gonna happen.
No weapons, no ammo, no enforcement. They are there for show...
wasting away again in not-Iraq...
Spending their "vacation"...
It must be an election year! The plan has always been to let the BP do the enforcement, with the NG freeing up BP resources to do the enforcement, and building the border fence.
Anyone: Is the NG really "stretched" ? What are the facts?
Anecdotally I know NG member who joined several years ago with the motivation to fight terrorists in Iraq. They and their units (one Chicagoland, one downstate) have not bee sent anywhere except WI and GA (Ft Benning). So if those who joined several years ago for the purpose of going to Iraq have not yet been sent, how "stretched" is the NG?
It isn't a rhetorical question. I really don't know and wold like to know if the "talking point" has any truth behind it.
I posed this same question after the announcement that they would basically be down there as unarmed, Radar O'Reilly Company Clerks. LEOs down there have been getting shot AT forever, and Sheriff Flores in Webb County has been BEGGING for help in DC as a result (and begging for our prayers too), and very little has been done. What happens when a U.S. military person is shot or shot at.
I saw that sketch.
ping
Am I wrong?
Load of crap - it is easy to find a unit going OIF or OEF - even easier to "straphang"
.............Some committee members echoed complaints from critics who have suggested that the border plan would overburden a National Guard that is already stretched by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. But Blum said the border program, coupled with the approximately 71,000 Guard members deployed overseas, still leaves more than 350,000 Army and Air Guard available for other homeland defense or disaster assistance.................
I have caught his shows a few times on comdy channel...He is a hoot. So un PC...how does he get away with it? ha/.
Rumsfeld on O'Reilly repeated several times "there will be rules of engagement" whatever that means.
I am in central Il...my hubby's unit has been to Iraq and is rotating back in 07.....my son's unit is not going so he transferred to another unit that is....
At the first casualty the MSM will declare our border a quagmire and demand immediate withdrawal, naturally.
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